Are We There Yet??

The Answer is Yes!! Did You Miss Me?? I sure missed all of you. Our way of travelling on one of these cross-country trips is…unique. I will not comment on the fact that we did not leave New Jersey until 9:10pm on Saturday. I had all of my things, with the exception of my purse, the water bottles and myself in the car by 10am. What did I do during that time? Well fortunately, I can occupy myself with a good book. Needless to say I was plotting a good murder mystery novel in my head during those 11 hours. 😉

But we got off and didn’t stop driving until 6am Sunday morning. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel in West Virginia. Actually they have a really good new breakfast option for me to tell you about and I even took a photo, but I’m still a little too dazed to remember how to load photos on my (Ralph’s ) Netbook, it’s different from my lap top. We then took an approximately 2 hour “power nap” in the car and we were soon off again.

We finally stopped for the night late Sunday near Ft. Smith Arkansas. Monday morning we got on the road for one of the most difficult days of travel I can remember. Ralph had chosen a route we had never taken before. Remember the old saying, “It looked good on paper?” This was it. It looked like a direct route however in Kentucky there are all of these various “highways” all named after people and none of them interconnected. With many…and I do mean many…stops to ask for directions, some very successful, some not at all we finally got out of Kentucky. I said we were eaten by Kentucky and although it’s a beautiful state, I was happy to see it end.

We headed into Oklahoma, and yes…We Sang!! This was a decent route and I don’t remember any hitches except for the horrific accident we saw just as we were getting back on the interstate after stopping for lunch. We were so close to being a part of it. If we had left only a few minutes sooner, we might have been.

We passed into the Texas panhandle. I thought this would be easy…it is after all the short part of Texas. Seemed to take forever with traffic and road construction. We crossed into New Mexico and I must say I was apprehensive. Again, Ralph had chosen a route we had never taken before. I was crossing my fingers and gritting my teeth. It turned out to be a great route, very direct and not much traffic…especially in the middle of the night. Our only hitch was a last-minute change of how we were getting from one route to another. It was another situation where the highways were not in sync and we had to stop to ask. The change was a wise choice and very worn out, but happy…at least I think we were happy, perhaps we were too tired to tell…we walked into the door of our House on the Hill at 4:15am.

So begins our Enchanted Days…New Mexico is the Land of Enchantment. My friends here tell me that brown stuff I see all over the floor after not being here for 10 months is “enchantment.” Unfortunately, they also tell me that you find it when you’re here every day! Thank goodness for my Swiffer!

That’s about all I can muster at the moment, Cookies…I’ll get livelier as our stay progresses. I’m having my coffee…free coffee as a matter of fact. Someone remind me to tell that story. It’s a glorious day here already. We only brought in the essentials last night, so we have to unpack.

Oh dear, I won’t ask what happened on Saturday! But the traffic was probably better at night and thank goodness you missed that accident.
I’ve always thought West Virginia and Kentucky sound beautiful and would love to see them but New Mexico sounds even better! Hope you’re settling in well, looking forward to seeing pictures 🙂

fran!!! so great to hear from you and i am happy you arrived safe and sound…yes, sounds like there were some *glitches* along the way (departure time, to begin with?? ok, i won’t ask!) but you are in nm now and that is what is important!!
best of luck as you settle in and get used to the netbook – i am really looking forward to seeing some photos!!